Orange-Rosemary Cranberry Sauce and Peach-Cranberry Pie

I hope you aren’t tired of all the recipes I’ve been posting lately. These next two are actually reprints of recipes I posted back in 2009. They are so good, however, that they’ve become Thanksgiving favorites. Both recipes serve about 8 people.

I really love this cranberry sauce. I have a couple of family members who still prefer the can shaped stuff, but this has been a hit with the rest. It makes a large batch, which means leftovers and that makes me happy.

Rinse and drain cranberries. In a large sauce pan, add cranberries, sugar, orange peel and water. Over medium-high heat, bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer 15 minutes. Add rosemary sprigs and simmer 5-10 minutes more. Remove from heat, and stir in orange juice. Reserve 1 cup of sauce for the pie. Let cool, cover and refrigerate for up to a week. To serve, bring to room temperature and remove rosemary and orange peel, garnish with a fresh rosemary sprig.

The next recipe is a pie that went from a way to use up that leftover cranberry sauce (a great way), to a planned Thanksgiving day dessert. Rick looks forward to this pie all year long now.

I typically use frozen peaches that we harvested from the Western slope in the summer time. Fresh peaches would certainly work as well, but they are not really at their peak around Thanksgiving. Sometimes the frozen peaches release A LOT of juice. If they are super juicy, I throw a handful or so of rolled oats into the pie filling to soak it up. This is totally optional, of course. If you don’t like oats in your pie, just pour off some of the excess juice before adding the peaches into the filling mixture.

Preheat oven to 375°. Put bottom pie crust in a deep-dish pie plate. Stir together peaches, cranberry sauce, sugar, flour and, if needed, oats. Pour into prepared crust. Dot with butter and top with second crust. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Cover edges of pie crust with foil if the top is browning too quickly. Let cool for about 15 minutes before serving.

This pie is pretty topped with a lattice crust, like I did last year, but I’ve also just thrown chunks of extra rolled out dough on top, or even used a cast iron skillet and only a top crust with simple slits cut into it. This year I plan to cut slits into my top crust to look like a rosemary sprig. Wish me luck with that fanciness. 😉

Next week I’ll announce the winner of the DVD giveaway. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving with your loved ones.

Happy Thanksgiving! I wish I had seen this posting before I made my own sauce! This looks great! Well, who says you can only have cranberry sc. on T-day and Xmas?! Here is a thought on the “canned stuff” … from Marissa with Food in Jars … make up your own cranberry jelly and let it “set” in a cleaned out can!!! Let’s see what they would say about it before knowing it was your own recipe! Best to you, Rick and the kids! Bill and Cynthia

Ha! Finally, someone who makes a real lattice crust. Sometimes I feel a total fail because my lattice’s are always a little… off. You know, wonky and not all perfectly even. lol. Lovely recipes, and thank you for sharing them!